R§§§
VOLUME 34
Trash And Garbage Pollute Stream
Genesis 1
It Is Toward Evening
By Rev. Harold McDonald
One of the most disturbing pop tunes of our generation points
out what too many of us are seeking to ignore. "The Last Seven
Days" is depressing, frightening and wholly true. In this song,
written and sung by teenagers, we are dramatically hearing God's
message of judgment in contemporary terms. God's method of
judgment now as so often in the past is to allow mankind to de -
stroy himself.
"On the first of the last seven days
He saw the world and said,
'Give me back all the animals and birds
They will be spoiled like all the human beings'"
Our extravagant wastefulness and disregard for animal life is
now catching up with us. Conservationists are now recording an
increasing number of animals, birds and fish that are vanishing
from the scene. Soon even the oceans may be incapable of sus
taining marine life, the atmosphere devoid of fowls.
Imagine a world without the splash of a feeding fish, the rustle
of a prowling animal, or the melody of a trilling bird. Yet man,
in his concrete jungle, is slowly but surely creating a world for
himself. He is encasing himself in a world in which the night
silence is broken only by the roar of his own clanking machines.
'On the second of the last seven days
He saw his world and said,
'Give me back all the flowers and trees,
You don't deserve their beauty and their shelter'"
We have built our factories, cities, roads, parking lots, and
little by little God's grass, herbs and trees give way to lawns of
concrete. Sixty miles from Los Angeles at an elevation of one
mile a giant primeval forest is slowly but surely dying out frbm
air pollution. Today we are surrounded by concrete lawns pain -
ted green and artificial shrubbery where nothing can grow. And
yet, the oxygen we breathe is manufactured by the trees we de
stroy. Predictions are that in fifteen years gas masks will be ne
cessary for survival in the cities of our land.
"On the fifth of the last seven days
He saw his world and said
'Give me back the wonderful sun,
You don't deserve the light that's in your blind eyes.
"And God made two great lights; the greater to rule the day. "
But man made his factories, his diesel engines, his automobiles
.. . and now, there is a darkness at noontime. Smog chokes the
air and people die, but what can you do? The sun continues to
recede behind an ever-thickening haze and man keeps pocketing
his dollars in a dying world. It's just too expensive to clean up
the air - but what happens when there is no more air?
"And then on the last day of the week,
f (Cont'd on page 13)
THURSDAY, HAY 14,1970
Clean Up Day
Scheduled
For May 16
Adults and young people in
Yancey County who have seen
the need for cleaning up our
environment will be turning
out in force this Saturday,May
16, in a special Clean - Up
Day Campaign.
Girl Scout Troops; the Se -
nior Scouts, Cadettes, Junior
Scouts and Brownies will be
picking up litter in and around
Burnsville. Adults who are
interested in community im
provement are helping in the
cause by advertising remin -
ders about the clean-up day.
The South Toe Community
has a head start on the other
areas of the county, as their
campaign began three months
ago and is still going on full
force.Ehriig the last 3 months
the So uth Toe Youth Council
has spent a number of Satur -
days cleaning up roadside trash
along Highway 80 in the South
Toe area.
In cleaning up approximate
ly eight miles of road on both
sides, numerous truck loads of
trash were taken to the dump.
We were amazed at how much
litter could be found in just
a few feet. Since this stretch
of highway is typical of any
road in our country it shows a
problem that we all must help
solve.
Two other groups have also
joined in and helped the STYC
group in their campaign. One
was a group of teens from High
Point that were in the area for
a weekend over Easter. On
April 30 a group from Arthur
Morgan School, consisting of
Alan Thatcher, Dave Thomas,
Gib Barrus, Mike Morgan, Jan
De Witt, Maria Careccio,Pres
ton Moore and Laurie Wino -
(Cont'd on page 13)
Pollution -A
Health Hazard
By Jake Buckner
District Sanitarian
Much has been written and
said by the news media and
television commentators con -
ceming the subject of pollu -
tion, and rightly so, because
we believe it is one of the
greatest health hazards con
fronting the American people
today.
Not enough has been
or is being done, to combat
it. This is mainly due to the
(Cont'd on page 13)
1 | Ido " oil i
I dump
\
Sign Is Graphic Reminder - Unheeded
Protect Our Wilderness
Road Paving Controversial
arbl'^’Yuzluk
The Linville River, beginning in the vicinity of Grand -
father Mountain, courses some 20 miles and descends 2,000
feet before breaking into the Catawba Valley, and emptying
into Lake James. Over the centuries, this river has carved
out that steep, rugged, beautiful wilderness which we know
today as Linville Gorge. Under the Wilderness Act of the
United States Congress in 1964, 7,600 acres of this gorge was
designated as a "Wilderness Area", thus singling the area out
as "an area where the earth and its community of life are un
trammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does
not remain. A wilderness, in contrast with these areas where
man and his own works dominate the landscape."
There is growing concern among many citizens of North
Carolina at this time, that certain events are threatening to
put an end to the concept of a Wilderness in the Gorge. The
latest and most controversial of these events is the proposed
paving of 4 miles of Kistler Memorial Highway -a dirt road
approximately 13 feet wide, which follows the West rim of
the Gorge for 17 miles until it reaches State road 126 a few
miles above The 4 miles of Kistler (K. M.H.)
from its beginning to Wiseman's View, an area known and
visited by many of us, is about to be paved! To quote from
a recent newspaper article: "bulldozers and the earth movers
are going to go to work on the road to Wisemans View. And
before long there's going to be a hard-surfaced road to take
thousands of visitors in safety and comparative comfort di
rectly to a perch overlooking the gorge's wild beauty. " Many
conservationists and others who simply wish to preserve what
is left of our virgin mountain forests for posterity, are against
paving the road because they '.eel that in the future it will
cause the ruin of the Wilderness Area.
Forty-One families in the Linville Falls Community Club
were the initiators of the road-paving project. For three
years they have been corresponding with the various agencies
involved - The National Forest Service, State Highway Co
mmission, and Bureau of Public Roads - which resulted in the
proposal of a new road which would be paved to Wi s e mans
View. This road would be constructed at a cost of $750,
the State Highway Commission paying 3096 and the Appala -
chia Program paying the remaining 7096. The Linville Club
states that the dirt road prohibits people from getting to
Wiseman's View and therefore "stands as a barrier to recrea -
tional and business development in the Linville Falls
that the road is dangerous.
Opponents of the road-paving project argue that the dan -
gets of tha present road are magnified out of proportion and
(Cont'd on page 13)
NUMBER TWENTY